Legal aid burden

Job cuts at the Legal Services Commission (LSC) could increase administrative burdens on legal aid solicitors, practitioner groups have warned.

The LSC announced last week it is to shed 600 posts, reducing its workforce to 1,100, and close seven of its 13 offices. ‘More efficient processes and increased use of electronic working will enable us to provide these services with fewer staff and to deliver better value for money for the taxpayer,’ a spokeswoman said.

But practitioners fear the cuts would pass on more bureaucracy.

Roy Morgan, chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said: ‘I fear the LSC will become nothing more than an enabling body, and more and more administration will be passed on to solicitors.’

Society chief executive Des Hudson asked for ‘urgent clarification’ on the changes, before assessing whether they were ‘sensible efficiencies’ or short-term cost-cutting measures.

Andrew Caplan, chairman of the Society’s access to justice committee, said: ‘Either the LSC was too highly staffed, in which case legal aid money has been spent on administration rather than on providing legal aid practitioners with much-needed funding. Or the administration was needed, in which case the legal aid system is surely going to suffer as a result of these cuts.’